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Nanoscale double-crossovers (DX), antiparallel (A), and even half-turns-perimeter (E) DNA tiles (DAE-tiles) with rectangular shapes can be packed into large arrays of micrometer-scale lattices. But the features and mechanical strength of DNA assembly made from differently shaped large-sized DAE DNA tiles and the effects of various geometries on the final DNA assembly are yet to be explored. Herein, we focused on examining DNA lattices synthesized from DX bi-triangular, DNA tiles (T) with concave and convex regions along the perimeter of the tiles. The bi-triangular DNA tiles "T(A) and T(B)" were synthesized by self-assembling the freshly prepared short circular scaffold (S) strands "S(A) and S(B)", each of 106 nucleotides (NT) lengths. The tiles "T(A) and T(B)" were then coupled together to get assembled via sticky ends. It resulted in the polymerization of DNA tiles into large-sized DNA lattices with giant micrometer-scale dimensions to form the "T(A) + T(B)" assembly. These DNA macro-frameworks were visualized "in the air" under atomic force microscopy (AFM) employing tapping mode. We have characterized how curvature in DNA tiles may undergo transitions and transformations to adjust the overall torque, strain, twists, and the topology of the final self-assembly array of DNA tiles. According to our results, our large-span DX tiles assembly "T(A) + T(B)" despite the complicated curvatures and mechanics, was successfully packed into giant DNA lattices of the width of 30-500 nm and lengths of 500 nm to over 10 μm. Conclusively, the micrometer-scale "T(A) + T(B)" framework assembly was rigid, stable, stiff, and exhibited enough tensile strength to form monocrystalline lattices.

Aqueous sodium-ion batteries (ASIBs) promise particularly increased operational safety and lower manufacturing cost than the current state-of-the-art organic electrolyte-based lithium-ion batteries.

Potassium-selenium (K-Se) batteries have attracted significant attention as one of the most promising alternatives of lithium-ion storage systems owing to high energy density and low cost. In the design of Se-based cathode materials, however, the low utilization rate of active Se and the rapid dissolution of polyselenides seriously weaken the capacity and cycle stability. Therefore, how to make full use of Se species without loss during the charge and discharge process is the key to design high-performance Se-based cathode. In this paper, a 3D “water cube”-like Se/C hybrid (denoted as Se−O−PCS) is constructed with the assistance of Na2CO3 templates. Thanks to the abundant carbonate groups (CO32−) originated from the Na2CO3 templates, the molten Se species are firmly anchored into the pore of carbon skeleton by strong C−O−Se bonding. Thus, this unique Se−O−PCS model not only improves the utilization of active Se species, but also can reduce the contact with the electrolyte to inhibit the shuttle effect of polyselenides. Moreover, flexible carbon skeleton gives Se-O-PCS hybrid a good electrical conductivity and excellent structural robustness. Consequently, the resultant Se−O−PCS hybrid is endowed with an obviously enhanced K-ions storage property.

In arid and semi-arid regions, grassland vegetation is the most important element in maintaining the basic functions of ecosystems. Plateau in northwestern China is an important hotspot area for the research of grassland ecosystems in the global arid areas, and is facing the dual effects of high -intensity grazing activities and significant climate change. Study the trend of changes in vegetation under the double influence of grassland vegetation is of great significance to environmental management and biodiversity protection in the region. However, the current impact of climate change and human grazing activities on vegetation lacks substantial evidence, and its impact mechanism is currently unclear. We conducted vegetation surveys and analyzed the dual pressure of plant diversity index under the dual pressure of grazing intensity and climate factors to reveal the mechanism of interaction impact on the intensity impact. The results showed that the vegetation was more sensitive to the rainfall during the rainy season, and under the pressure of low grazing, the stability of vegetation should change the stability of precipitation in the rainy season. In addition, precipitation in the rainy season is a more important climatic factors affecting the diversity of vegetation in drought and semi -arid areas. In the warm and dry climate mode, vegetation is more sensitive to grazing interference and more vulnerable to vegetation; in the cold and humid climate mode, the stability (or elastic) of vegetation should be higher. The results of the research provide direct evidence for the interaction between grazing and climate on the interaction of vegetation diversity and stability, and provide a scientific basis for the grazing management and vegetation protection in the arid area.

Cyanobacteria are a widely distributed phytoplankton that can bloom and produce algal toxins in the eutrophicated water bodies. Large cladocerans are a group of zooplankton that presents higher grazing efficiency on algae. Studying the quantitative relationship between cyanobacteria and cladocera, especially in unmanipulated and unpredictable natural ecosystems in the wild, provides the key to revealing the mechanism of cyanobacterial blooms and finding effective control and prevention methods. This paper proposes a research method to detect the threshold for cladocera to control cyanobacteria by using the path of “edge scatter-segment regression.” Based on the field survey data from 242 sample sites in shallow and slow-flowing rivers in North China, the quantitative relationship between the main groups of zooplankton and phytoplankton was analyzed, and the standard deviation and coefficient of variation were used to test the threshold. This paper finally compares the roles of body size and cladocera abundance in cyanobacteria control. The results showed that in natural ecosystems, cladocera were the best group for controlling the abundance of cyanobacteria among zooplankton. The control effect of cladocera on the abundance of cyanobacteria is not linear but non-linear, and cladocera can only have a stable control effect under certain conditions. The total phosphorus concentrations and water temperatures did not interfere with the analysis results in this paper. In wild ecosystems, the predation process of cladocera on cyanobacteria basically follows the “size-efficiency” hypothesis, but when cladocera successfully control cyanobacterial abundances, it is often due to “win by quantity” rather than “win by size.” The phenomenon of non-linear variation in the cladocera density-cyanobacteria density relationship fits well with the description of the transition from a stable to chaotic state in chaos theory. This paper reveals the complex quantitative relationships of plankton food chains in wild aquatic ecosystems. The ecological threshold detection of the cladocera-cyanobacterial abundances provides a quantitative basis for early warning, control and prevention of cyanobacteria blooms. The non-linear variations in cladocera density-cyanobacteria density revealed in this paper provide insight and evidence for understanding the complex changes in aquatic ecosystems.

The clinical and hemodynamic characteristics of venous pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients with normal or elevated cerebrospinal fluid pressure (CSFP) have not been clearly differentiated. This study aimed to explore CSFP among patients with PT as the solitary symptom, as well as quantitatively and qualitatively assess the role of the degree of transverse sinus (TS) stenosis and jugular hemodynamics in venous PT patients. A total of 50 subjects with venous PT with or without sigmoid sinus wall anomalies (SSWAs) were enrolled in this study. In addition to radiologic assessments for TS stenosis and invagination of arachnoid granulation (AG) in TS, CSFP and jugular hemodynamics were measured via cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) manometry and Doppler ultrasound. Apart from group comparisons and correlation analyses, multivariate linear regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) models were used to identify the sensitivity and specificity of the index of transverse sinus stenosis (ITSS) and hemodynamic variables with inferential significance. The mean CSFP of all cases was 199.5 ± 52.7 mmH2O, with no statistical difference in CSFP between the diverticulum and dehiscence groups. Multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated that CSFP was linearly correlated with ITSS and pulsatility index (PI). ROC analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve of PI was 0.693 at 200 mmH2O threshold, and the best PI cut-off value was 0.467, with a sensitivity of 65.7% and specificity of 81.8%. For 250 mmH2O threshold, the area under the ROC curve of PI was 0.718, and the best PI cut-off value was 0.467 with a sensitivity of 68.4% and specificity of 75.0%. Additionally, the area under the ROC curve of ITSS was 0.757, and the best ITSS cutoff value was 8.5 (p = 0.002, 95% CI = 0.616–0.898) with a sensitivity of 72.4% and specificity of 75.0% at 200 mmH2O threshold. In conclusion, patients with venous PT as the only presenting symptom should be suspected of having borderline or increased CSFP when they present with high ITSS, BMI and low PI. Further, AG in TS without encephalocele and empty sellae are not limiting findings for differentiating the level of CSFP in patients with venous PT.

AB-stacked bilayer graphene (BLG) has wide application prospects in the field of optoelectronic devices. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is an important method used to prepare BLG, but no definite stacking orientation is observed between the bilayers. Besides AB stacking, a number of disordered stacking orientations that could seriously affect the performance of BLG also exist. In this paper, we report a method to control the stacking orientation of reverse-transferred CVD-BLG via high pressure environment. We found that the orientation of BLG could be changed from weak-coupling stacking to AB stacking by increasing the temperature of the solvent in the autoclave. MoS2 grains grown on graphene confirmed the stacking orientation variation of BLG. Reductions in the distance between layers in BLG under a high-pressure environment were considered to explain the observed orientation change. Reverse transfer allows the easy modification of the stacking orientation of BLG. The proposed high-pressure assistant method introduces a new route to prepare AB-stacked BLG and could be used to adjust the stacking direction of other two-dimensional materials.

Paprika is a widely consumed spice in the world and its authentication has gained interest considering the increase in adulteration cases in recent years. In this study, second-order fingerprints acquired by liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) were first used to detect and quantify adulteration levels of Chinese paprika samples. Six different adulteration cases, involving paprika production region, cultivar, or both, were investigated by pairs. Two strategies were employed to reduce the data matrices: (1) chromatographic fingerprints collected at specific wavelengths and (2) fusion of the mean data profiles in both spectral and time dimensions. Afterward, the fingerprint data with different data orders were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) and n-way partial least squares (N-PLS) regression models, respectively. For most adulteration cases, N-PLS based on second-order fingerprints provided the overall best quantitation results with cross-validation and prediction errors lower than 2.27% and 20.28%, respectively, for external validation sets with 15–85% adulteration levels. To conclude, second-order HPLC-FLD fingerprints coupled with chemometrics can be a promising screening technique to assess paprika quality and authenticity in the control and prevention of food frauds.

Alterations in dural venous sinus hemodynamics have recently been suggested as the major contributing factors in venous pulsatile tinnitus (PT). Nevertheless, little is known about the association between real-time alterations in hemodynamics and the subjective perception of venous PT. This study aimed to investigate the hydroacoustic correlations among diverticular vortices, mainstream sinus flow, and PT using various Doppler ultrasound techniques. Nineteen venous PT patients with protrusive diverticulum were recruited. The mainstream sinus and diverticular hemodynamics before and after ipsilateral internal jugular vein (IJV) compression were investigated using an innovative retroauricular color-coded Doppler (RCCD) method to examine the correlation between the disappearance of PT and hemodynamic alterations. To reveal the hydroacoustic characteristics of disparate segments of venous return, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique combined with the transcranial color-coded Doppler method was performed. When the ipsilateral IJV was compressed, PT disappeared, as the mean velocity of mainstream sinus flow and diverticular vortex decreased by 51.2 and 50.6%, respectively. The vortex inside the diverticulum persisted in 18 of 19 subjects. The CFD simulation showed that the flow amplitude generated inside the transverse–sigmoid sinus was segmental, and the largest flow amplitude difference was 20.5 dB. The difference in flow amplitude between the mainstream sinus flow and the diverticular flow was less than 1 dB. In conclusion, the sensation of PT is closely associated with the flow of kinetic energy rather than the formation of a vortex, whereby the amplitude of PT is correlated to the magnitude of the flow velocity and pressure gradient. Additionally, the range of velocity reduction revealed by the RCCD method may serve as a presurgical individual baseline curative marker that may potentially optimize the surgical outcomes.

In this study, novel multilayered magnetic nanoparticles (ML-MNPs) loaded with DNase and/or vancomycin (Vanc) were fabricated for eliminating multispecies biofilms. Iron-oxide MNPs (IO-core) (500-800 nm) were synthesized via co-precipitation; further, the IO-core was coated with heavy-metal-based layers (Ag and MoS

Hyperlipidemia endangers human health and has become a significant public health problem. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of the hypolipidemic effects of Fermented Rosa roxburghii Tratt juice (FRRT) on hyperlipidemic rats and a new hypolipidemic intervention strategy was disclosed. The study revealed 12 weeks FRRT treatment significantly decreased the body weight, total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) increased. We integrated the 16S rDNA sequencing and metabolomic profiling to evaluate the changes in the gut microbiota and metabolites. Significant changes in microbial composition accompanied marked changes in 56 feces metabolites. The results showed that FRRT could decrease the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes, while increase the abundance of some bacterial genera (Prevotella, Paraprevotellaceae_Prevotella, Ruminococcus, Oscillospira). Metabolomics analysis displayed that the metabolisms of bile acid, amino acid and lipid were significantly affected by FRRT. Correlation analysis suggest that the reductions in serum lipids by FRRT are associated with the gut microbial community and their associated metabolites (amino acid metabolites, bile acid metabolites, and lipid metabolites). This study confirmed FRRT could be used as a new dietary and therapeutic strategy to dyslipidemia by improving the gut microbiota dysbiosis, metabolomic disorders and regulating the dyslipidemia. Our study also extended the understanding of the relationship between gut microbiota, metabolites, and lipid-lowering functions.

Aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs) are a type of promising energy storage device due to their high capacity, high charge transfer efficiency, low cost, and high safety. However, the most investigated graphitic and metal dichalcogenide cathodes normally possess only a moderate capacity and a relatively low cycling stability, respectively, which limit the further development of high-performance AIBs. Here, based on the results of first principles calculations, we developed a polyaniline/graphene oxide composite that exhibited outstanding performances as a cathode material in AIBs (delivering 180 mA h g− after 4000 cycles), considering both the discharge capacity and the cycling performance. Ex-situ characterizations verified that the charge storage mechanism of polyaniline depended on the moderate interactions between −NH in the polyaniline chain and the electrolyte anions, such as AlCl4−. These findings lay the foundation of the development of high-performance AIBs based on conducting polymers.

Hyperlipidemia endangers human health and has become a significant public health problem. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of the hypolipidemic effects of Fermented

Previous studies have demonstrated positive net primary production effects with in-creased precipitation in semi-arid grasslands of Inner Mongolian. The knowledge of the store and storage potential of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) can help us to under-stand how ecosystems would respond to anthropogenic disturbances under different management strategies. Therefore, we carried out research on the storage of organic C and N in four sites where the floras and landform were similar but the intensities of disturbance by grazing animals varied. The primary objective of this study was to pinpoint how the store and storage potential of C and N would respond to grazing exclusion and precipitation. We determined concentrations of both soil organic car-bon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (TN) in the 0–50 cm soil layers. Concentrations of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) were measured by an innovative method in our study. Additionally, soil bacteria and fungi content were determined in the 0–50 cm soil layers. The total C , N , MBC and MBN storage were significantly different among the four grasslands (P

The application of grafts and biomaterials is a cardinal therapeutic procedure to resolve venous pulsatile tinnitus (PT) caused by temporal bone dehiscence during transtemporal reconstructive surgery. However, the transmission mechanism of venous PT remains unclear, and the sound absorption and insulation properties of different repair materials have not been specified. This study quantifies the vibroacoustic characteristics of PT, sources the major transmission pathway of PT, and verifies the therapeutic effect of different material applications using joint multi-sensing platforms and coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. The in vivo intraoperative acoustic and vibroacoustic characteristics of intrasinus blood flow motion and dehiscent sigmoid plate of a typical venous PT patient were investigated using acoustic and displacement sensors. The acoustical, morphological, and mechanical properties of the dehiscent sigmoid plate, grafts harvested from a cadaveric head, and other biomaterials were acquired using acoustical impedance tubes, micro-CT, scanning electron microscopy, and mercury porosimetry, as appropriate. To analyze the therapeutic effect of our previous reconstructive techniques, coupled CFD simulations were performed using the acquired mechanical properties of biomaterials and patient-specific radiologic data. The peak in vivo intraoperatively gauged, peak simulated vibroacoustic and peak simulated hydroacoustic amplitude of PT prior to sigmoid plate reconstruction were 64.0, 70.4, and 72.8 dB, respectively. After the solidified gelatin sponge–bone wax repair technique, the intraoperative gauged peak amplitude of PT was reduced from 64.0 to 47.3 dB. Among three different reconstructive techniques based on CFD results, the vibroacoustic and hydroacoustic sounds were reduced to 65.9 and 68.6 dB (temporalis–cartilage technique), 63.5 and 63.1 dB (solidified gelatin sponge technique), and 42.4 and 39.2 dB (solidified gelatin sponge–bone wax technique). In conclusion, the current novel biosensing applications and coupled CFD techniques indicate that the sensation of PT correlates with the motion and impact from venous flow, causing vibroacoustic and hydroacoustic sources that transmit via the air-conduction transmission pathway. The transtemporal reconstructive surgical efficacy depends on the established areal density of applied grafts and/or biomaterials, in which the total transmission loss of PT should surpass the amplitude of the measured loudness of PT.

Since the discovery of ion-exchange resins, they have been used in many fields, including pharmacy. Ion-exchange resin-mediated preparations can realize a series of functions, such as taste masking and regulating release. However, it is very difficult to extract the drug completely from the drug–resin complex because of the specific combination of the drug and resin. In this study, methylphenidate hydrochloride extended-release chewable tablets compounded by methylphenidate hydrochloride and ion-exchange resin were selected for a drug extraction study. The efficiency of drug extraction by dissociating with the addition of counterions was found to be higher than other physical extraction methods. Then, the factors affecting the dissociation process were studied to completely extract the drug from the methylphenidate hydrochloride extended-release chewable tablets. Furthermore, the thermodynamic and kinetic study of the dissociation process showed that the dissociation process obeys the second-order kinetic process, and it is nonspontaneous, entropy-decreasing, and endothermic. Meanwhile, the reaction rate was confirmed by the Boyd model, and the film diffusion and matrix diffusion were both shown to be rate-limiting steps. In conclusion, this study aims to provide technological and theoretical support for establishing a quality assessment and control system of ion-exchange resin-mediated preparations, promoting the applications of ion-exchange resins in the field of drug preparation.

Multilayer graphene has increasingly attracted significant research interest owing to its high conductivity with an available band gap. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has shown a great promise for large-scale multilayer graphene growth with a high temperature (typically 1000 °C). Here, we adopt camphor as the hydrocarbon feedstock and nickel as the catalyst to grow multilayer graphene at a low temperature down to 550 °C. The transferred multilayer graphene shows a uniform and continuous surface morphology with a low surface roughness down to 0.6 nm and few defects. In addition, the low temperature CVD technique can be applied in the three-dimensional architecture of multilayer graphene. Our work may pave a way to an undemanding route for economical and convenient multilayer graphene growth and its applications in microelectronic devices.

Li CO2 battery is a very promising power source with high energy density. Its performance is strongly restricted by the cathode catalysts, in which carbon-based catalysts have been mostly investigated up to now. However, the impacting factors on the performance of carbon catalysts is not yet elucidated. Here, we employed a variety of carbon materials with different pore-structure features as the cathode catalysts of Li CO2 batteries to reveal which are the main influencing factor on the catalytic performance of carbon catalysts. It is found that suitable pore shape (most important), large pore size and high surface area are crucial factors to the catalytic performance of carbon catalysts. This finding is of great significance to the further development of Li CO2 batteries.

Magnetic gold nanoparticles (mGNP) have become a great interest of research for nanomaterial scientists because of their significant magnetic and plasmonic properties applicable in biomedical applications. Various synthetic approaches and surface modification techniques have been used for mGNP including the most common being the coprecipitation, thermal decomposition, and microemulsion methods in addition to the Brust Schiffrin technique, which involves the reduction of metal precursors in a two-phase system (water and toluene) in the presence of alkanethiol. The hybrid magnetic–plasmonic nanoparticles based on iron core and gold shell are being considered as potential theranostic agents. In this critical review, in addition to future works, we have summarized recent developments for synthesis and surface modification of mGNP with their applications in modern biomedical science such as drug and gene delivery, bioimaging, biosensing, and neuro-regeneration, neuro-degenerative and arthritic disorders. This review includes techniques and biological applications of mGNP majorly based on research from the previous six years.

A spherical iron oxide precursor was prepared using a solvothermal method, and then treated thermally at 400°C to obtain α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. The structures and morphology of the as-obtained products were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the diameter of the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles was approximately 500 nm. In addition, we formed the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles into a thick film as a gas sensor and performed a gas sensing test. When the working temperature was set at 250°C, the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticle displayed very good selectivity and high sensitivity for trimethylamine (TMA). The minimum detection was as low as 1 ppm, and the response value for 100 ppm TMA gas was 27.8. Taken together, our findings illustrated that the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles could be used as a gas-sensitive material to test the freshness of fish.

The urgent need for large-scale, low-cost energy storage has driven a new wave of research focusing on innovative batteries. Due to the high capacity and the low-cost of elemental Al, aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs) are expected as promising candidates for future energy storage. However, further development of AIBs is restricted by the performance of existing carbon-based cathodes and metal chalcogenide cathode materials. In this work, we deposited polythiophene (Pth) on a graphene oxide (Pth@GO) composite and used it as an AIB cathode material. This Pth@GO composite possesses high exposure of Pth active sites, high conductivity, and high structure stability while providing a very high discharge capacity (up to 130 mAh g

A spherical iron oxide precursor was prepared using a solvothermal method, and then treated thermally at 400°C to obtain α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. The structures and morphology of the as-obtained products were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the diameter of the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles was approximately 500 nm. In addition, we formed the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles into a thick film as a gas sensor and performed a gas sensing test. When the working temperature was set at 250°C, the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticle displayed very good selectivity and high sensitivity for trimethylamine (TMA). The minimum detection was as low as 1 ppm, and the response value for 100 ppm TMA gas was 27.8. Taken together, our findings illustrated that the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles could be used as a gas-sensitive material to test the freshness of fish.

Abnormal protein acetylation and succinylation in lysine residues can cause the initiation and development of numerous different types of tumors. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is currently a lack of systematic investigation in breast cancer. Using proteomic techniques, the present study systematically investigated the two modifications of all proteins in invasive ductal carcinoma tissues to identify potential targets. The results revealed significantly higher modification levels for the majority of proteins in breast cancer tissue when compared with para-carcinomous normal tissue. The bioinformatic analysis demonstrated that either highly acetylated or succinylated proteins were significantly enriched in histone H2A.X (H2A.X) complexes and nucleophosmin (NPM1) may be the key member among them. The results of further analyses revealed that H2A.X complexes were associated with DNA damage response (DDR), and the proteomic results for protein quantification provided further evidence for the abnormal DDR condition in breast cancer tissues. Later, the western blotting results validated the high acetylation and succinylation levels of the majority of proteins, including the modification of NPM1 and its correlation with cell viability. Finally, the upregulation of H2A.X in breast cancer tissues further demonstrated the association between H2A.X complex modification and DDR in breast cancer. Overall, the present study systematically investigated the protein acetylation and succinylation in breast cancer and provided evidence to support H2A.X complexes as potential targets. These results broaden the horizon for breast cancer investigation and link it with epigenetics.

Cajanonic acid A (CAA), a prenylated stilbene derivative extracted from the leaves of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), has been reported to possess inhibitory activity on the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B). Its hypoglycemic activity in rats is comparable to that of the approved antidiabetic agent rosiglitazone. Therefore, CAA is a potential candidate for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and a lead compound for the discovery of novel hypoglycemic drugs. To achieve a thorough understanding of the biological behavior of CAA in vivo, our current study was designed to investigate the pharmacokinetics, bioavailability, distribution, and excretion of CAA in rats by UPLC-MS/MS. Chromatographic separation was performed on BEHC18 column (2.1 mm × 50 mm, 1.7 µm). Quantification was performed under the negative ion mode by using single reaction monitoring (SRM) of the transitions of m/z 353.14 → 309.11 for CAA and m/z 269.86 → 224.11 for genistein, respectively. Standard calibration curve showed excellent linearity (r2 > 0.99) within the range of 2 – 800 ng/mL. The accuracies and precisions were within the acceptance limits (all

The fruit of Rosa Roxburghii Tratt (RRT) is edible and has been considered as a medicinal fruit with a lipid-lowering effect, but the mechanism is still unclear. In this study, we integrated the results of 16S rRNA gene sequence and fecal metabolome to explore the potential mechanisms of RRTJ treatment in hyperlipidemia. The result suggests the useful effects of RRT juice (RRTJ) in hyperlipidemic rats. The 12 weeks of RRT juice (RRTJ) treatment decreased serum lipids, fat accumulation, body weight and liver weight. RRTJ treatment reversed the HFD-induced gut dysbiosis by lowering Dorea, Coprobacillus abundance and enriching Bifidobacterium, Roseburia abundance. Also, we conducted a targeted metabolic profile analysis of 160 metabolites in feces and 19 feces metabolites have significant changes. Correlation analyses suggest that the reductions in serum lipids by RRTJ are associated with the gut microbial community (Dorea, Coprobacillus and Roseburia, Bifidobacterium) and their associated metabolites (palmitoleic acid, succinic acid, propionic acid, Glyceric acid). In conclusion, the 12 weeks of treatment with RRT juice (RRTJ) can regulate dyslipidemia by improving intestinal microbiota disorders and related metabolites disorders.

Ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) is one of the most promising electrode material for supercapacitor. However, pure OMCs have low specific capacitance due to its simplex storage mechanism based on electric double layer. In this work, anthraquinone (AQ) is used as a modifier to boost the capacitance of OMCs. The modified materials (AQ/OMCs) can not only provide mesoporous channels facilitating rapid ion diffusion, but also generate extra pseudocapacitance improving specific capacitance greatly. As evidenced by electrochemical measurements, AQ/OMCs can exhibit specific capacitance as high as 346 F g−1 in 1 M H2SO4 electrolyte at the current density of 0.5 A g−1. Besides, the AQ/OMCs also possess excellent rate performance with capacitance retention ratio of up to 84.3% even at a very high current density of 30 A g−1. The outstanding capacitive performance of AQ/OMCs can be ascribed to the synergic effect between OMCs and AQ, in which ordered mesoporous channels facilitate rapid ion diffusion, and AQ generates large pseudocapacitance. In addition, asymmetric supercapacitor is assembled using AQ/OMCs and OMC as negative and positive electrode, respectively, which can deliver a very high energy density of 14.51 Wh kg−1 and excellent long-term cycle stability, retaining 96.3% of initial capacitance, after 10,000 cycles.

Designing electrocatalysts for hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) in alkaline media is crucial but challenging. Among all available electrocatalysts, Ni-based materials are recognized as the most potential precious-metal-free electrocatalysts for HOR. However, they still suffer from serious problems including low activity and poor stability. In this work, a synergistic chemical anchoring and electronic structure regulation strategy is proposed to gain both high electrocatalytic activity and stability for Ni-based HOR catalyst. N-doped graphite nanoflakes (N-GFs) support with abundant N anchoring sites can stabilize the loading of Ni-based active species, giving rise to an excellent stability of the catalyst. Meanwhile, the rationally designed heterostructure in the active Ni3N/Ni can trigger the electron transfer across the heterointerface, which optimizes the binding energy of the reaction intermediates, resulting in an accelerated the Volmer reaction. Benefited from the rational design, Ni3N/Ni/N-GFs exhibits excellent mass activity (42.7 A gNi-1 at the overpotential of 50 mV) and stability (more than 24 h continuous operation). Moreover, the Ni3N/Ni heterostructure performs better in HOR electrocatalysis than individual Ni or Ni3N. These experimental results are rationalized by the theoretical simulations, which demonstrate that the heterostructure effectively weakens the hydrogen adsorption, optimizes the hydroxyl adsorption, and decreases the water formation reaction barrier.

In this work, we have investigated the ambient stability improvement of colloidal quantum dots (CQD) photodetectors by graphene encapsulation. The low temperature deposited graphene is performed to act as an isolating membrane between PbS CQDs and the ambient environment. The oxidization of PbS CQDs can be significantly inhibited with a graphene isolating membrane. In addition, the optoelectronic characteristics of PbS CQDs-based photodetectors encapsulated by graphene are well maintained even exposed in ambient for a month. This work paves the way for the fabrication and application of the air-stable CQDs.

With increasing output of petroleum coke, the value-added exploitation of petroleum coke has become a tough problem. Preparing porous carbons is a traditional way to the value-added exploitation of petroleum coke. Here, we used a facile and efficient hard-templating strategy to synthesize mesoporous carbon with high surface area from petroleum coke. N2 adsorption analyses show that the BET specific area and pore volume of the carbons can reach up to 864 m2/g and 1.37 cm3/g, respectively. To utilize the abundant mesopores of the carbons, anthraquinone-modified mesoporous carbon was tested as an electrode material for supercapacitor applications. Electrochemical measurements demonstrated that the specific capacitance reached up to 366 F/g at the current density of 1 A/g, indicating a promising prospect of using this carbon in electrochemical energy-storage field. More importantly, the strategy used in this work can be easily modified to prepare other nano-carbon materials from petroleum coke.

Due to the high theoretical volume specific capacity and mass specific capacity of aluminum-ion batteries, they can meet the needs of contemporary society for high-performance energy storage devices, and have attracted a lot of research strength. Cathode materials are a key issue limiting the development of aluminum-ion batteries. Herein, polythiophene was prepared on the surface of carbon microspheres by in-situ oxidative polymerization, resulting in polythiophene carbon microsphere composite materials. It exhibits excellent electrochemical performance, as a cathode material for aluminum-ion batteries, in terms of a high specific capacity (106 mAh g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1), good stability (maintaining 58 % of initial capacity after 10000 cycles) and excellent rate performance (90 mAh g−1 at a high current density of 3.5 A g−1).

Lithium-ion capacitors (LIC) have problems such as the imbalance of electrochemical kinetics between the battery-type anode and the capacitive cathode, and the large change in the working potential of the hard carbon anode during charge and discharge, which limit the improvement of electrochemical performance for LIC. To solve these problems, CoSe2 nanoparticles embedded nitrogen-doped hard carbon microspheres (NCS-CoSe2) are synthesized and used as the anode material of LIC. Electrochemical tests show that NCS-CoSe2 has a reversible specific capacity of as high as 500 mAh g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1, which can effectively stabilize the working potential of the anode. At a high working voltage window of 2.2–4.5 V, the potential change of the NCS-CoSe2 anode is as low as 0.35 V, significantly smaller than that of the pure hard carbon (0.87 V). Regarding the electrode kinetics, the NCS-CoSe2 anode is matched with the active carbon cathode well. When the power density rises sharply from 335 W kg−1 to 6700 W kg−1, the energy density of NCS-CoSe2//AC LIC can attain 82 Wh kg−1 (56.9% of initial energy density).

Aluminum-ion battery (AIB) is intriguing for electrochemical power sources due to its potentially high capacity and high safety. However, the most investigated graphitic and metal dichalcogenide cathode materials normally possess moderate capacity and inferior cycling stability, respectively, which limit the performance of current AIBs. Here, we develop a polyaniline (PANI)/ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) composite as a cathode material of AIB using chloroaluminate ionic liquid as an electrolyte. During the charging/discharging process, two obvious platforms are observed at high voltages of 1.1 V and 1.5–1.7 V. The PANI/OMC cathode exhibits outstanding performance in terms of high specific capacity (140 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1), good rate performance (118 mAh g−1 at 2000 mA g−1) and excellent cycling stability (only 12% loss of capacity after 5000 cycles). Based on the ex-situ characterizations, the charge storage of PANI is found to be via the doping/de-doping of anions such as AlCl4−.

Aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs) is a type of emerging device for large scale energy storage. Developing new and efficient cathode materials is a hotspot in this research area. Herein, a strategy combining the layer double hydroxides (LDHs) synthesis in the presence of graphene oxide (GO) and subsequent sulfidation is developed to prepare a composite of nickel-cobalt sulfides and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The resulting sulfurized product (S–NiCo@rGO) exhibits a high discharge capacity of 248.2 mA h g−1 at the current density of 1 A g−1 and maintains a discharge capacity of 83 mA h g−1 with nearly 100% coulombic efficiency after 100 cycles. The energy storage mechanism of this material is disclosed to be due to the substitution of Ni2+ and Co2+/Co3+ by Al3+. The material and the finding obtained in this work are significant for the development of high performance AIBs using LDH-derived materials.

In N-limited temperate regions, atmospheric N deposition remains high over the non-growing season. However, the retention dynamics of non-growing season N input within the ecosystem remain unclear. Using an isotopic approach, we investigated the initial retention and subsequent dynamics of 15N (1.5 g 15N m−2) in the soils, microbes, plants, and litter over three years in grazing-prohibited (PG) and heavily grazed treatments (HG) in northern China. For initial retention (21 days after 15N addition), most 15N was immobilized in soils and microbes, while less was taken up by plants. Soil and microbial 15N immobilization were significantly higher when grazing was prohibited, although plant 15N acquisition was not affected by grazing. After initial retention, rapid 15N loss was observed in microbes and soils, while 15N levels were sustained longer in plants and litter. The 15N residence times were longer when grazing was prohibited. The 15N acquisition capacity varies among plant taxa: perennial grasses and forbs accumulated 15N rapidly, while sagebrush and legumes acted slowly. Although the added 15N had significant contribution to early spring N demands of soil microbes and plants, it did not increase microbial or plant biomass N. Our results showed that non-growing season exogenous N was primarily retained by soil biota in temperate grasslands in the early stage, but N retention is finally sustained in soil and plants. The findings highlighted the importance of soil microbes in sustaining N upon N input, inferring the needs for considering the microbial role for better understanding N cycling in the temperate grasslands.

A selective asymmetric hydrogenation of enones has been well established by using an iridium complex composed of cheap phosphine ligands and cinchona alkaloids derivatives as catalyst. A wide range of allylic alcohol products could be obtained in high chemoselectivities (up to 99.6%), enantioselectivities (70.1% ee) and high activities (up to 3.64 × 104(1/h) TOF). This catalytic system opens a new way of selective asymmetric hydrogenation and the method can be of practical value.

Polydopamine-modified graphene (G-PDA) materials were synthesized by in situ polymerization of a dopamine monomer on the surface of graphene oxide. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has confirmed that new N-containing functional groups are formed during the synthesis process, which result in the excellent electrocatalytic activity of the composite towards ORR in terms of onset potential, number of electron transferred and limiting current density. The electrocatalytic activity of the optimized G-PDA sample is better than N-doped graphene and comparable to the commercial 20 wt% Pt/C catalyst. Furthermore, compared with the Pt-based catalysts, the G-PDA showed superior stability and methanol resistance, which favored its practical applications in fuel cells.

This study presents a high-performance micro-thermoelectric generator (μ-TEG) optimized based on a system analysis. The system analysis indicates the thermal matching requirement for thermocouples dimension and array density to maximize the output power. With the measured performance of a reference device, the complicated thermal properties of various application environments can be easily derived, which are necessary parameters for thermal matching. The effect has been further proved by a CMOS-MEMS fabricated μ-TEG module for different applications. The wristwatch-TEG application produces 0.32 μW output power, realizing an improvement of three orders of magnitudes for the reported wristwatch-TEG device of the similar materials.

Enteromorpha prolifera (E.prolifera), an ocean biomass, was used as raw materials to prepare active carbons by a two-step strategy (pre-carbonization followed by chemical activation). The as-prepared active carbons have been characterized by a variety of means such as N2 adsorption, field emission scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that the carbons have large surface area and developed porosity with micro-meso hierarchical pore texture. As evidenced by electrochemical measurements, the specific capacitance of the carbons can reach up to 296 F g−1. More importantly, the carbons can maintain a high capacitance of up to 152 F g−1 at a very high current density of 30 A g−1, highlighting the promise of the carbons for high power applications.

Silicon nanowire field-effect transistors (SiNW-FETs) have recently emerged as a type of powerful nanoelectronic biosensors due to their ultrahigh sensitivity, selectivity, label-free and real-time detection capabilities. Here, we present a protocol as well as guidelines for detecting DNA with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible SiNW-FET sensors. SiNWs with high surface-to-volume ratio and controllable sizes were fabricated with an anisotropic self-stop etching technique. Probe DNA molecules specific for the target DNA were covalently modified onto the surface of the SiNWs. The SiNW-FET nanosensors exhibited an ultrahigh sensitivity for detecting the target DNA as low as 1 fM and good selectivity for discrimination from one-base mismatched DNA. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.